Friday, January 4, 2008

Jeff's People

In a few days I'll be giving a lecture on the video oevre of the redoubtable Jeff Krulik at Art in General. Below is a full press release for the event, which also includes experimental video programs curated by Hanne Mugaas and Thomas Beard, interspersed with fragments of Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

Organized by Hanne MugaasArt in General's 10th Video Marathon explores the current state of video art, situated in-between institutionalized 'Video Art' and the work emerging from the flow and dynamism of the Internet. Taking the title of Haskell Wexler's film of 1969, which suggested a critique of Marshall McLuhan's distinction between 'hot' and 'cold' media, Medium Cool suggests that video is an idea rather than a technology – as an umbrella term for a particular set of practices, it promises democracy while at the same time threatening to reduce images to information. Through screenings, lectures, and a dedicated website, the Marathon looks at a range of video practices, including early experiments within the media itself, while dealing with issues of video distribution and copyright, the making of (art) history and legacy through moving images, and the general impact of technology on contemporary culture.

In keeping with this tenth anniversary of the Video Marathon, the screening Transitional Objects, curated by Thomas Beard, looks back on the past decade of electronic art as a way of thinking about a medium that has remained in flux—politically, aesthetically, and technologically—since its inception, while Artist Looking at the Camera, curated by Hanne Mugaas and Fabienne Stephan, includes the work of artists who use the medium to explore the creation and distributionof facts and history. The Marathon opens on Thursday 10th January with a lecture by Ed Halter, and ends on Saturday 12th with Art Since 1960 (According to the Internet) an event by Hanne Mugaas and Cory Arcangel, and Flipped Chips, an event curated by the artist collaborative LoVid.

ONGOING IN THE GALLERIESThursday January 10, 6.00- 9.00, - Friday & Saturday, January 11 & 12, 12.00- 6.00pmArtist Looking at the Camera, curated by Hanne Mugaas and Fabienne StephanThese screenings profile the work of artists who use the tools of re-enactment, appropriation and moving image manipulation to question how history is produced and how facts are modified and reinforced through distribution. From issues of social documentation and media distribution to copyright and the impact of technology upon culture, the artists question the status of moving images in collective memory and imagined future. Artists include Bad Beuys Entertainment, Lene Berg, Ida Ekblad, Haris Epaminonda, Sascha Hahn, Nate Harrison, Annika Larsson, Lars Laumann, Guthrie Lonergan, Anders Nordby, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, and Stephen Sutcliffe.

Transitional Objects, curated by Thomas BeardThe screening Transitional Objects looks back on the past decade of electronic art as a way of thinking about a medium that has remained in flux—politically, aesthetically, and technologically—since its inception. Whether the subject is dime store psychics or the return of the repressed, new loves or old regimes, all works raise the question: where is video going? Artists include Bobby Abate, William E. Jones, Eileen Maxson, Jennifer Montgomery, Michael Robinson, Phil Solomon, and Jennet Thomas.

EVENTSThursday January 10, 6.30-8.00pmRegarding Jeff's People, lecture by Ed HalterThis lecture by writer and curator Ed Halter takes its starting point from the work of Washington, DC-based Jeff Krulik, maker of the legendary video Heavy Metal Parking Lot. In his talk, Halter addresses the utopian hopes and mundane realities of public access television, the question of fandom and subjectivity, underground VHS bootlegging as proto-file-sharing, criticism of art and comedy, and the challenge of defining the term "artist", and in particular, "video artist".

Saturday 12 January, 6.00pm-7.00pmArt Since 1960 (According to the Internet), project by Hanne Mugaas and Cory Arcangel, performed by Cory ArcangelFor this event, Mugaas and Arcangel have sorted and collected videos from the Internet in order to discern where art and art history on the web is currently situated. Looking at how art production and art history are changed by the growing use of the Internet as a platform and resource, their project explores how search algorithms and the whims of users upset the usual control systems that govern how art is categorized—with sometimes surprising results. Mugaas and Arcangel's findings culminate in a video screening presented with a live directors' commentary.

Saturday January 12, 7.00-8.00pmFlipped Chips, event by LovidFlipped Chips includes videos by artists who custom-make their own hardware video instruments. Dan Sandin, Nam June Paik, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Matthew Schlanger, Jim Wiseman, and Bill Etra represent a generation of pioneers who explored video and moving image synthesis during an era of idealism and utopian views of communication, where video and television were regarded as the ultimate new medium of cultural and social change. In this event, their work will be shown along with a new generation who approach technology with personal and global nostalgia, or as a reaction to the dominance of technology and media in mainstream culture, including Billy Roisz (NTSC), noteNdo, Jon Satrom, Paul Slocum, Karl Klomp, and LoVid.

WEB SITEA website with an online exhibition and material relating to the project will be available from January 10 at: www.hanne-mugaas.com/videomarathon --------------------For additional information on the exhibition and events, please visit http://www.hanne-mugaas.com/my_work/a/--------------------Art in General's Video Marathon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency and The Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds program, which is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and mediaThe Foundation. Additional support is provided by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA)